How to back up specific folders in Google Photos [2020]

Google Photos is easily one of the best backup options for pictures on the internet. No matter what device you're using, whether that's a computer, an Android or iOS smartphone, or a tablet, Google Photos can safely store all of your images.

And we're not just talking about pictures you take, either. It can also upload images you save from social media, your screenshots, or from other apps, and it'll organize everything just like it does with the rest of your library. We'll show you how to manage backing up specific folders on your device so you can keep everything exactly how you want it.

Backing up folders manually

Manually backing up folders gives you the most control over your library. You can exclude certain apps and include others, so if you only want your saved Facebook photos to upload but you don't want Twitter photos included, you can fine tune that. It's very simple, too.

1. Open up the Google Photos app. This might be in your app drawer or on your home screen, and you can always do a manual search for it. But all of the settings are controlled within the app, so that's where we need to start.
2. Tap the menu in the top left corner of Google Photos, next to the search bar. It's indicated by the three horizontal lines. This should open up the slide out menu with tons of options.
   • If you're just interested in seeing those specific folders with photos, you can select “Device Folders” here and Google Photos will display every folder with an image in it on your device. This is a quick way to jump into organized folders, and you can tell if they're backed up at a glance or not. If the folder has a cloud with a strikethrough icon, that means it's not backed up.
3. Tap Settings in this menu. This hops us over to all of Google Photos settings, including being able to change what is and isn't backed up across your device.
4. Tap Back Up & Sync, which opens up the fine-tuning details of Google Photos' backup options. For this guide, we want to hit Back Up Device Folders.
   • Here's where you control what backs up, when it can backup (WiFi vs. cellular), the quality of photos to backup, and a shortcut to purchasing more cloud storage space, if you need to change anything else while you're here.
5. Once you select that option, you'll see every folder on your device, alongside quick toggles to turn those backups an and off. Turning a backup off won't delete any photos, but it will stop new photos from going to the cloud; turning a folder on will automatically back up everything in that folder, however.

Automatic backup shortcut

If you've already set up Google Photos, there's a quick shortcut to automatically backing up new folders on your device. So long as Google Photos is running, if it detects a new folder created on your device, you should see a prompt in the notification shade asking if you want to automatically upload images from that new folder.

Simply interact with that notification and you'll be able to choose whether to upload or skip the backups for that. You'll probably want to skip some of those folders, since you don't need backups for every single app on your device, but this is a useful way to automatically get some of your social media pictures to back up on a new phone without having to dig around in settings.

Why back up these photos?

It's never a bad idea to keep anything even remotely important backed up, especially with something like Google Photos that offers free backup storage. Things like screenshots generally aren't very big files, either, so even if you're uploading in original quality, these won't count very heavily against your quota.

Once these things are backed up, you'll be able to quickly recover them if you lose your phone or it just ends up breaking to the point where you can't do anything on it. It's nearly impossible to recover photos from a broken, water-damaged phone, but if they're backed up to Google Photos it won't matter; everything's safe in the cloud anyway.

Google Photos alternatives

You don't necessarily have to use Google Photos for this, if you're just not invested in Google's ecosystem. Most other cloud storage backup solutions will be able to handle all of your images, even if the process is a little different. Here are some of the best alternatives:

Microsoft OneDrive

If you're already paying for an Office 365 subscription, you get 1TB of cloud storage via OneDrive. The OneDrive app on Android also features an automatic picture backup option that will automatically grab everything on your device, organize it in OneDrive, and make it accessible across all of your devices. This option is especially useful for Windows 10 integration, and I personally use it fairly often especially while writing guides like this.

It also offers some unique features like instant tags for your photo library, so you can look at #Beach and see all of your beach photos. It'll also auto-create albums and re-share old memories for you, too, adding a touch of personalization.

Play Store Download Link

Dropbox

Dropbox is what really kicked off this cloud storage kick. A few years ago it was the first to market with a cloud-based locker solution for digital files, and while it's got a ton of competition now, it's still a very good option. It can handle all of your photos with ease and seamlessly integrates them with the rest of your files. Since it's been around so long it's also compatible with most major devices and operating systems, including Android and iOS, Windows 10 and MacOS, and support for just about every browser.

On phones it also supports photo backup, making it a compelling Google Photos alternative. The free tier isn't quite as aggressive as Google's unlimited photos backup, but it's still worth checking out if you're not heavily invested or don't love the idea of Google holding all your photos.

Play Store Download Link